[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 134 (Tuesday, September 11, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1860-E1861]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HONORING MR. HAGOP BAHTIARIAN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. SCOTT GARRETT

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 11, 2007

  Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, last month, the Nation lost 
a great patriot when Mr. Hagop Bahtiarian of Emerson, New Jersey, 
passed away. Mr. Bahtiarian was born of Armenian descent in Keskin 
Maden near Ankara, Turkey in 1909.
  In 1915, his father was murdered by Turkish officials, forcing his 
mother to flee with her children, adopting the Muslim faith and 
``Turkified'' names to survive. In 1919, at the age of only 10, Mr. 
Bahtiarian was placed in an orphanage in Constantinople with his 
brother. Not until 1922 was he able to escape to Marseilles, France, a 
survivor of the Armenian genocide.
  In 1927, he came to America, living in the Bronx, New York and 
Englewood, New Jersey. There he worked as a jeweler and watch maker and 
raised a family with his wife, Gula; loving children, Rita and Berj; 
and later in life two grandsons. Mr. Bahtiarian never forgot the life 
he'd been forced to live as a child in Turkey and was an active member 
of Armenian cultural groups dedicated to ensuring that the genocide 
would never be forgotten or repeated.
  During World War II, he went to work for his adopted country, serving 
proudly as an Instructor at the Naval Air Warfare Center in 
Indianapolis, Indiana. There he specialized in the construction and 
repair of the famous Norden Bomb Sight.
  Mr. Bahtiarian lived a tremendous life and he bore witness to some of 
the most significant events of the 20th Century, from the Armenian 
Genocide to World War II. And he ensured that the lessons learned from 
those events would bear the fruits of peace for his children and 
grandchildren. Each year, as more and more survivors of the Armenian 
Genocide pass, let us be certain that their memory lives on and that we 
never see such a travesty again.

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